Now you can make paintings from any Windows Bitmap File or JPEG that really works in The Sims. There are just six easy steps to take and a Sim will help you along the way.

Instructions on the use of The Sims Art Studio:

First you need to run the The Sims Art Studio. You will begin at the welcome screen. If the Sim has an idea to help you, he will wave at you with a light bulb over his head. Click on him to see what he wants to say. You can click on About to see the credits for the application. Otherwise click on Start to begin. You can click on the round door with an arrow exit button to quit at any time.

Step 1: Choose a picture type.

The type of the painting determines the shape. You can select the shape by clicking on the arrows to the left and to the right of the sample painting. Do not worry about the frame color as you can change that later. After selecting the type click on Next to continue.

Step 2: Select a graphic

Click on load picture to select a bitmap or JPEG. The load window will show you a preview of bitmaps but not for JPEGs. After selecting your graphic, click on Next to continue to the next step.

Step 3: Resize the art

The orange box shows you the area of the picture that will end up in the painting. You can choose the area by moving the orange box by dragging it around with the mouse or by using the arrow cursor keys on your keyboard. You can make the graphic ( not the orange box ) bigger and smaller by clicking on the Make Bigger and Make Smaller keys. You can also select Auto-resize to have The Sims Art Studio try to calculate the best size. When finished with this step, click on Next to move on to the next step.

Step 4: Select Frame Color and Texture

You are almost there as you can now see you painting for the first time. Click on Change Texture to cycle through the available textures. Click on Change Color to cycle through the offered color choices. Click on Next to advance to the following step.

Step 5: Set Catalog Information

Click on Catalog Info to set the information that is used by the Buy Mode catalog in the game. Here you can set the price, name, and description that will appear in The Sims. Click on Next when finished to progress to the final step.

Step 6: Save your Painting

The painting is now ready for The Sims! Click on Save. The Save Window should default to the correct location for user created objects to be saved ( usually GameData\UserObjects in the folder that you installed the game to ). Give it a filename and save it.

Now you can try it in The Sims. Run The Sims on your computer and go to Buy Mode. Select the Decorative Category and your painting will be available. Please note that items are sorted in Buy Mode from least expensive to Most Expensive.